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Vardok
Vardok is a dutiful gray orc of the Brud. He sprouted on the back of the older orc Nalvar in the Deepstone Keep, about 11 years ago. He is a soldier and a captain of a small fist of scouts and rangers, he and his troops besting the keep's assigned territories. He is careful and wise, while at other times he allows himself to let go or even have fun. Description Vardok stands well above 6 feet tall, and is easily more than 200 pounds in weight, all size and muscle. His skin is pale gray with numerous scars and bruises, while his eyes are deep set and small, brown in color. He keeps his skalp freshly shaved but for a topknot that sprawls down about his head. Accustomed to a life in the mountains, he familiarized himself with wearing a heavy plate armor, mostly plain with minimal decorations of Urrun, an attire that gives him some trouble when traversing the humidity and heat of the mainland. Having lost his keep-forged longsword, he replaced it with a magic elven mace. A round steel shield is always strapped on his arm. Background Vardok sprouted and grew up in Deepstone Keep, being a member of the guard that occupy this southernmost fort. A soldier's life is all he ever knew in his eleven years in this life, yet he bears himself with a wisdom that has him ready to adapt in many a situation. He was summoned to take on a journey and bring back a wanted woman from the location of exiles, the Nameless Island. The order dictated that Althea, the daughter of Romilus Aberus who is the reeve of Achentum, stole or organized a theft from Deepstone Keep. Along with a soldier from Vorgis, an Aes Qintari named Primus Salvianus, he is to travel to the island and bring her to justice. Vardok and his companion first stop was the island of Nyree, where he met with the local reeve of Belmora. The reeve, Kalamos Galanos, aided them in that he offered a ship for the journey. Deep in the forbidding waters of the Oblivion Sea, a storm engaged the ship and ultimately led to its sinking. Vardok and Primus fought to survive the accident, before they both lost consiousness. He awoke on an unfamiliar beach and after making sure both he and Primus were well, he followed a strange frog-like creature through the jungles of the island. He met with the Timeless Nine in their home, and also befriended Oruruk, Orethel, Gecko, and Rathgol. Their missions took the same path for the moment, so they grouped together on their way north to a community called Wetflame. On the Island of Strangers he met Adulu, a self-proclaimed pallbearer for the souls of all dead creatures on this island. In their effort to retrieve his stolen Cup of Souls, Adulu was ultimately slain in a duel and a dark force was released upon the island's skies from within it, while at the same time a wildfire was spreading in the jungle, as the result of Orethel's magic during a fierce fight with fell centaurs. Eventually they discovered an ancient tomb deep within a cavern, and from there somehow accessed a strange forested land, possibly through a mirror that was anything but mundane. In that place, the Bleeding Forest, he lost track of time and space. He wandered along with his companions, trying to find a way out. Eventually he found himself in the Black City. Flying up to the throne room, they woke Aerynax up who walked into a mirror and the place came crumbling down. Oruruk guided them to a number of boulders that acted as teleportation spots. Vardok regained consciousness at the top of the Prying Hill, where he could see Vorgis in the far distance. Along with Oruruk, he managed to operate an ancient apparatus that would carry them down. With his companions, he climbed down the mountain and went through it, hearing about a supression of all magic but necromancy and discovering an interesting ziggurat at the top of which he found an altar, an intricate sword, skulls of various creatures, and a huge beating heart. Vardok was suspicious of that, let alone that it had nothing to do with their purpose, choosing to ignore it until his companions had their fill of observing it. Leaving those things untouched they reached the foot of the mountain, the Snapjaw Vale as it is called by its residents, a tribe of Kabutel. He demonstrated his hunting skills to a handfull of green goblins, and he agreed to help them repel their invaders in exchange for being shown the way out of this valley.